If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Admiralty 61.5ft MFV cardboard kit

Hello!

First, as I'm new here, let me introduce myself: I'm from Munich/Germany, am married, have a boy aged three and a tomcat aged four, and I spend my spare time with the venerable hobby of cardboard modeling. Though, generally spoken, I build virtually everything from dachshund to aircraft carrier, most of my models are ships (more precisely: wee boats, because from time to time I want to see something finished!), and therefore I have an interest in fishing vessels, too.

Now to the main subject:
Horst Muerrel of Coastal Forces in Paper recently has released a free cardboard kit of an admiralty 61.5ft motor fishing vessel in 1/250 scale. The model file and instructions can be found at the bottom of http://cfp.muerell.de/product/details/9. Choose the english version of the site (klick the union jack in the menu to the left), and you'll get the english version of the instruction sheet.

Gee whizz! I actually owned a 61 footer (MFV Harfield) here in South Africa many years ago. Not too sure how many were actually built here but they were all named after railway stations on the Cape Town to Simon's Town line. I sold the vessel (early 1970's) and, after conversion to a live crayfish transporter, she went aground off Slangkop near Hout Bay.

61' MFVs

Would anyone be able to comment on the deck layout of the 61' boats built in Cape Town by Louw and Halvorsen? Jim Pottinger wrote an article published in Model Shipwright, showing the layout used in Britain. The South African boats had a longer cabin, perhaps a longer main hatch, and the mast was closer to the bow than shown in his drawings. They also had a mizzen mast

By the way the designer of the German card model, armed his version. In this respect it more resembled the German equivalent of the MFV...armed Fischkutter (KFK) [ 24 Meters]. See monograph by Herwig Danner. *Kriegsfischkutter KFK* Hamburg, 2001 and an article about a model of a vessel of this type in Modellwerft 3/85. s. 196-202. Unlike the MFVs, they were built with metal frames, planked with wood.

I have contacted Strontamar and Vector off-list, but would welcome any suggestions.

Mfv

Hello John (Watcher) my plan deck layout was more of a general arrangement, as many of the boats had varied deck layouts. I have a fair number of photos of 61.5 and 75ft boats for example which confirms these differences. For example some of the 61.5 boats had the wheelhouse forward and split from the deckhouse.
Incidentally the size designations of 45;61.5;75; and 90ft did not accurately define the actual overall sizes which differed from these nominal designations.

MFV's

Incidentally my late father served on a number of MFV's in Algiers and Oran in WW II. He had been on the HMS Shiant, an Isles class A/S M/S trawler for a number of years involved in landings at Africa, Sicily and Italy, until being sent ashore with sciatica. Transferrer to MFV's and having been a fisherman all his life he was somewhat sceptical of the efforts of the leuitenant skippers on the MFV's trying to cope with the direct reversing engines, it was full speed ahead, then full speed astern, then fulls top when a big bump in the quay!
As I recall the diesel engines were either Widdops or Listers, the 45 ft boats had petrol Chrysrel engines.

South African MFVs

This a model of a 61' MFV built in Cape Town. It differs from Jim Pottinger's plan published in Model Shipwright in some particulars, the differences being based on photos and memory ....the latter not particularly reliable after 60 years plus. As Jim mentioned, the deck layout on these craft, and I think one or two boats built in Scotland were built to the same plan as the Cape Town boats. I am not at all sure of the placement of the stove funnel and ventilators beside the foremast, but pretty confident about the layout from the foremast going aft. I have shown the recognition lights, just abaft the wheelhouse, as coloured, but suspect they were clear. These little vessels behaved splendidly on the two occasions when we were exposed to the huge swells sometimes experienced south of the African continent. The other four voyages from Cape Town to Durban were uneventful.

I bought the "Harfield" in 1969 and she most probably had had at least one refit/fishing conversion by then. As you so rightly remark, memory is not particularly reliable after so many years, nevertheless I am sure that she did not have the stove funnel beside the foremast. The only galley was in the deckhouse. The wheelhouse was attached to the deckhouse but I somehow think that the deckhouse was longer. She had a Cat 13000 which didn't make her the fastest boat around...

She was licensed for 20 (or 25?) crew and spent a good part of her fishing life (before I bought her) sailing up the West Coast as far as Namibia catching snoek (Thyrsites atun), which was salted and then exported to the islands of Mauritius and Reunion.

BTW, did you receive the message I posted directly to you 10 September?

South African MFVs

To Vector. Many thanks for response. Perhaps check my e-mail address with Henning Yde. No message received from you around Sept 10. I did hear from Moderator Yde on Sept 11. The attached photo was taken when coming alongside in PE. In the event, the Cape Town boats were destined for the Far East, and the stoves would have been redundant. I think these boats were built with idea of transporting libertymen in the inclement weather of Scottish roadsteads, and to keep the passengers warm a bogie stove was installed in the forward part of the hold ....the funnel can be seen in the photo. In fact I am pretty sure there was another in the crew's mess aft. I have one photo which shows two funnels aft.

I don't think I have placed the forward ventilators properly in my model.
As of now, the smoke from the stove would blow straight down the starboard ventilator. The photo was taken when coming alongside in PE. In the event, the Cape Town boats were destined for the Far East, and the stoves were redundant.